Saturday, January 26, 2013

Chasing the Sun and Incremental Improvement

It's been a long time, and the post's title pretty much captures what I've been up to for the last month. A lot has been going on, but no one thing that's been inspirational enough to warrant it's own post. Now it just feels like I'd better start posting again before too much time goes by. Here's what's been going on.

I've been polishing up the guide, gathering historical information from many friendly people, and have worked out a plan for printing, and then distributing the guide with some help from Fixed Pin Publishing.

I've been dieting. Been hungry for a month, but dropped six pounds, and have noticed the difference in my climbing.

Mike and Dave of ClimbTalk had me call into their radio show down in Boulder last week. Talking with Dave before the show was a lot of fun, but that wasn't being recorded or broadcast. I called in later, a little more nervous, and hope it went alright for the listeners. I've been listening to The ClimbTalk podcast and The Enormocast podcast while making simple edits in the guide and doing household chores. I'm not even sure how the cleaning ever got done before there were podcasts. If you enjoy hearing about climbing, and different climber's perspective on the sport, you should give both of them a listen.

Here's a report of the last month's climbing days.
Just after New Years Day, a visiting climber named Ben came out for a day of bouldering with us at the Dolomite Band. The high in Lander was 23 fahrenheit, but it felt like 60 up there. It was a good day to climb Arch Roof. The climb has a boulder in the landing, and with Ben there we had one extra pad, and he was a good spotter. I tried some beta that didn't work for me.

But it worked for Ben, and he flashed it.

I worked out some new tricky undercling beta, and topped out eventually. We also spent some time at the Big Overhang. I haven't been able to send Ashley's version of the B1 traverse yet. It's my biggest project at the Dolomite Band. I've probably put 5 days into it over the last couple years.

Ben got the full tour, and we ended the day on the Mono Wall traverse. It's one of the best problems on the Band.

It traverses 10 feet and then climbs an arete on good incuts.

Last Saturday we planned to visit three boulders on Fairfield hill. I was so excited by the sunny, and windless, weather that I drove up at 9:30 and brushed off snow so they would be dry by noon.

Our first stop was the Slug boulder, and it filled the entire session. It's a somewhat small boulder, but the stone and problem quality is high. We repeated all the up problems and then got to work on a traverse.

Fun granite slopers near the start of the line.

Rounding the corner is the crux.

We made it somewhat of an eliminate at the end. It works into an old problem called crack traverse, where only the lowest crack is on for hands, which keeps it more interesting at the end. Ashley climbed it first, but she let me name it. I've decided to call it "The Clam" V5/6

After bouldering we went sledding on the shady side. The snow wasn't quite deep enough to cover all the sage or rocks.

I got this shot of the west end of the Main Wall and Squaretop across the canyon at sunset.

After all that outdoor bouldering and sledding, I felt too tired to go to the Elemental Bouldering comp. Ashley and I reenacted a smaller comp on Monday with a couple extra score sheets. The problems were really good, and it would have been fun to attend the real comp if I hadn't worn myself out.

The days are starting to get longer, and now I can get some exploration done if I leave right after school. Yesterday I hiked up to ledges just east of the Granite Buttress. There's potential for a few problems up there, but I'm still looking for something better. With so much rock, and long mini walls over ledges, I'm sure I'll find something worth the hike if I keep looking.

Even if I don't, it's a nice way to spend an evening after work.

Today was my second day of projecting "Citadel of Hope" this winter. The dogs are always ready to go.

And Ashley's been pretty friendly about doing multiple toprope ascents of the line in order to get her climbing workout.

It's really nice that the first half falls in the 5.10 range, and the second half is the 5.12 part. The first half has become a toprope project for Sierra. Clipping the last two bolts is still a project for me.

Roo spent the session playing with a new friend named Paco, and was pretty worn out at the end of the day.

You're probably worn out too if you've read this far. I'll try not to wait a month before posting next time.